Clint Eastwood - 75

Happy Birthday to Clint Eastwood, who turns 75 today.

It's tough to compile a "5 best" list for Clint, so here are a couple of "5 great" list:

Starring Clint Eastwood

1. The Good, The Bad And The Ugly - Sergio Leone's sprawling culmination to the "man with no name trilogy". Great performances from Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef. Unforgettable vistas, spectacular score from Ennio Morricone. A classic.


2. Dirty Harry - Honestly, could anyone else have played Harry Callahan? OK, someone else could have, but it wouldn't have worked as well...


3. Heartbreak Ridge - Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Highway, winner of the Medal Of Honor in Vietnam, is training marines, and taking them to Grenada.


4. In The Line Of Fire - One of best thrillers of the 90s


5. Unforgiven - In many ways, he was Josey Wales 25 years later.

Directed by Clint Eastwood

1. The Outlaw Josey Wales - The western as more than just a shoot-'em-up (though there was plenty of shooting...)


2. Heartbreak Ridge - Not a perfect film, as the scenes with Marsha Mason go too long and there are too many of them, but the training scenes are compelling.


3. A Perfect World - I think a lot of people expected this to be a different movie than it is. It's not an action film, it's a character study, and director Clint got an outstanding performance from Kevin Costner.


4. Unforgiven - No one else could have starred in this, and no one else could have directed it. He got fantastic performances from everyone, including himself.


5. Mystic River - Not a thriller - a drama, and very well done.

Update:
Chris Lynch's list looks very different than mine (though I've also not yet seen Million Dollar Baby...)